Share this image

Military helicopters

Paratroopers from Chosen Company of the 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry board a waiting CH-47 Chinook helicopter as they begin a helicopter assault mission at Combat Outpost Herrera in Afghanistan's Paktiya Province, July 17, 2012. Reuters

A gunner of an U.S Army Chinook helicopter looks out while flying over Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan May 22, 2012. Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters

A U.S. Army soldier of the C Company 3/82 Dustoff MEDEVAC performs a system check on a helicopter at the beginning of his shift in Logar province, eastern Afghanistan, May 16, 2012. Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

A Cobra helicopter gunship (l.) and UH-1 Huey search for insurgents in this file image from June 24, 2004. An AH-1W "Cobra" and a UH-1Y "Huey," conducting routine training operations, collided over a training range in Arizona on February 22, 2012 killing seven Marines, the Marines said on February 23. Bob Strong/Reuters/File

Britain's Prince William, a search and rescue co-pilot, is seen at the front of a Sea King helicopter at the Search and Rescue base, RAF Valley, Anglesey, Wales, on Jan. 22. Search and Rescue Photographer Faye Storer/AP/File

A Blackhawk helicopter prepares to drop sandbags in an effort to dam off part of the marsh on Elmer's Island in Grand Isle, La., after oil giant BP PLC's oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico. Alex Brandon/AP/File

First Lt. Vernice Armour of Memphis, Tenn., heads back to the hangar after performing an engine wash on her AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter at an air base in the Gulf region in 2003. In 2002, Ms. Armour, a pilot with the HMLA 169 out of Camp Pendelton, Calif., became the first African-American female Cobra pilot in the US Marine Corps. Julie Jacobson/AP/File

The US Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey, a tiltrotor plane that flies like a helicopter and an airplane, made its debut in Iraq this 2007. USMC/File

A CH-47 Chinook helicopter lifts a large howitzer to Forward Operating Base Shank in the Logar province of western Afghanistan in 2009. Sgt. Amber Robinson, HO/ISAF/AP/File

Soldiers from the 34th Iraqi Army Brigade, 9th IA Division, take defensive positions after being air inserted into a simulated battlefield by an MI-17 Hip helicopter from the Iraqi air force in Baghad in 2009. Sgt. Travis Zielinski/US Army/Reuters/File

Spain's Crown Prince Felipe (c.) points at a Eurocopter AS532 Cougar helicopter as he visits the Emergency Military Unit at Torrejon de Ardoz military airbase in Torrejon de Ardoz, outside Madrid, on March 23. The Emergency Military Unit, which is a branch of the Spanish Armed Forces, provides disaster relief in Spain. Susana Vera/Reuters/File

Share this image:

Two F-16 fighter jets made contact with the pilot of the Cessna 182, a single-engine plane, that strayed into restricted airspace around President Obama's helicopter on Thursday in Los Angeles. More than 20 pounds of marijuana was later found aboard the intruding aircraft, officials said.

BySteve Gorman, ReutersFebruary 17, 2012

Nick Ut/AP

U.S. F-16 fighters intercepted a small plane that strayed into restricted airspace around President Obama's helicopter on Thursday in Los Angeles, and more than 20 pounds of marijuana was later found aboard the intruding aircraft, officials said.